Sylvia
dir. Christine Jeffs
Christine Jeffs' Sylvia starts promisingly, in the beautiful setting of Cambridge, where headstrong poets Sylvia Plath (Gwenyth Paltrow) and Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig) start up a firey romance. However from then on it takes a dip and continues to decline until the very poorly executed final scenes. Instead of concentrating of Plath's poetic, intense personality, the film cuts away most things to turn it into a fairly plodding melodramatic romance between the two characters. Convinced her husband has been unfaithful, the two eventually split (after about an hour of tension and shouting matches between them), and the film really takes a dive. Without Craig's brooding presence it is left to Gwenyth to command our attention, and she fails to do so. The script is at least partially to blame--Sylvia is portrayed more as a wilting, melancholic character and Paltrow has very little to do. The ending comes rather abruptly, with the only explanation of her suicide being Hughes' womanising and their estrangment. Jeffs fails to offer real depth to the project, and instead it ends up as a watchable but rather pointless romantic drama. Overall Sylvia is a very, very underwhelming picture.
** 1/2